Collections

The collections at the Virginia Museum of Natural History continue to grow, in keeping with the mission and purposes of the Museum: "to interpret Virginia's natural heritage within a global context in ways that are relevant to all the citizens of the Commonwealth, . . . to preserve elements of natural history, to serve as a permanent repository for specimens, especially those of Virginia origin, and to make the natural history material and its data accessible to researchers and the public."

The collections provide the basis for both in-house research and research that extends nationally and internationally.

"Natural History collections are very important to our understanding of the world around us. When specimens are well cared for and well documented, they can provide a wealth of information to researchers in such areas as climate change, biodiversity, evolution, etc. The most important parts of a natural history collection are its type specimens, which are those specimens that were used to describe and name a species and are considered to be the standard representation of that species. When researchers find what they believe to be new species, they can compare them to the type specimens of similar species in order to ensure that the find is truly something that hasn't been described before."

-Haley Cartmell, collections manager at VMNH

VMNH Collections Quick Facts

The Virginia Museum of Natural History has over 10 million specimens in its collections.